Data Due On Higher Cost-estimates For Water Plant

WINSTED — Selectmen will hear explanations tonight about why estimates to build a water filtration plant are nearly $4 million higher than estimates provided by the project engineer just weeks ago.

The most basic explanation is that the earlier estimates were wrong, Acting Town Manager Paul S. Vayer said. ``I don't think there's a lot new,'' he said.

Voters approved spending as much as $6.5 million for the plant, but the revised projection puts the cost at $10.2 million, he said.

The current estimate for the plant alone -- excluding water meters, an intake structure, or water and sewer mains -- is $6.56 million, Vayer said.

New Hampshire-based engineer Ray Korber initially told residents and selectmen that the costs would not exceed the amount approved in the referendum, even though residents had not approved installing sewers that were integral to the project.

Residents were to vote in another referendum on whether to include the sewers in the project. Korber said his cost-estimates included the sewers' cost anyway.

Some other components of the project were not included in Korber's estimates or in the referendum, such as some water mains. Those mains are included in the revised estimates, but they don't account for the full difference in the cost-estimates, Vayer said.

He said he expects the revised plans to be a hard sell to voters. He is investigating other choices for the filtration plant, such as contracting with Torrington to tap into its new filtration plant.

A packet of information for the selectmen's meeting includes a letter from Torrington Water Co. President Richard D. Calhoun to former Town Manager David Maynard expressing an interest in teaming up with Winsted to build a plant together.

In the letter, dated Feb. 26, 1993, Calhoun wrote that one $7 million filtration plant might serve the needs of both communities and each municipality's water system could be connected ``for a good deal less than $7,000,000.''

Winsted officials will continue to plan for a separate plant, Vayer said. Selectmen are expected to approve a plan to break up the project into three phases that would be completed in three years.

This new structure would help the town obtain grants and loans from the Farmers Home Administration, Vayer said. ``They can't handle a single-year project -- they said their funding is limited,'' Vayer said.

The old plan for the project called for construction and completion in one year.